Smokers Cost Employers $6,000 More Than Non-Smokers Each Year [Study]

Those who smoke cost their employers about $6,000 a year more than their non-smoker colleagues, researchers said on Monday.

In what they say is the first comprehensive look at the true burden of smoker health costs on employers, the new research supports a growing trend of employers banning smoking in the workplace and even refusing to hire smokers in the first place.

Micah Berman of Ohio State University led the study, and said that researchers even accounted for potential pension savings in the even of a smoker’s death.

“I think it’s certainly relevant to the argument,” Berman said.

Smokers hit their employer’s wallets in two primary places. The main one is health care costs, with many studies showing that smokers cost the system and health insurers more than non-smokers.

Also, the productivity loss of stepping away for a smoke break has an effect on the bottom line. Ironically, these smoke breaks last longer when employers ban the activity anywhere int he office or workplace.

Berman admitted that there isn’t a single study that has put all of these costs together before now. “I was really surprised to see that there wasn’t any really good study out there,” he said in an interview.

For his own study, Berman and economics experts primarily looked at the number of sick days taken by smokers, the cost of smoke breaks, and the pension savings if/when smokers die before their non-smoker colleagues.

They took a conservative approach, erring on the side of caution wherever possible.

Some findings: Smoke breaks cost eight minutes of productivity a day, or $1,641.14 each year. That’s just for one smoke break a day. Also, excess healthcare costs for smokers comes to about $2,055.77.

“Our best estimate of the annual excess cost to employ a smoker is $5,816,” Berman wrote.

He was also surprised to find just how unproductive smokers are.

“Though all employees are occasionally unproductive in one way or another, research suggests that smoking status negatively impacts productivity separately and apart from lost work time due to smoking breaks and absenteeism,” his team wrote.

Are you a smoker? Do you think you’re less productive and more expensive to your employer? Sound off!

[Image via: Zhukov Oleg / Shutterstock]